New bipartisan push for Peralta medal

Hunter and pols hope new SecDef reconsiders case in light of support

Rep. Duncan Hunter Tuesday launched a new salvo in his four-year campaign to upgrade Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta’s posthumous award to the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest for valor in combat. On the 10th anniversary of the Iraq invasion, the congressman introduced a bipartisan, joint House-Senate resolution recommending the honor for the San Diegan killed in Fallujah in 2004.

Hunter and the entire San Diego congressional delegation pushing the Peralta resolution seek to demonstrate to new Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel widespread support for a Medal of Honor. They hope Hagel, who was wounded as an enlisted infantryman during the Vietnam War, will give more credence to eyewitness accounts from fellow Marines who said Peralta pulled a grenade to his body to save their lives.

Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen, a Defense Department spokesman, declined to comment Tuesday, saying it was a matter of policy not to weigh in on pending legislation.

Hunter, R-Alpine, and Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, introduced the House version of the resolution with 27 original cosponsors. Later Tuesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced an identical version in the Senate.

“Peralta is a hero, not just to the men who witnessed him do the unthinkable, but also to the Marine Corps and all others who value the courage and sacrifice of America’s military,” Hunter, a Marine veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, said in a statement.

Rosa Maria Peralta, shown in 2004, sat on her son’s bed next to a photo of him. Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta was killed after displaying heroic action during the second battle of Fallujah in Iraq. U-T FILE

Rosa Maria Peralta, shown in 2004, sat on her son’s bed next to a photo of him. Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta was killed after displaying heroic action during the second battle of Fallujah in Iraq. U-T FILE

“We trusted our Marines to reclaim the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah and fight through Iraq and Afghanistan, and we should trust our Marines when they say that Sgt. Peralta pulled the grenade into his body,” Hunter said.

Peralta, 25, was serving with 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment when he was mortally wounded Nov. 15, 2004, in the head by a ricocheting bullet during house-to-house fighting in Fallujah. Insurgents fleeing the firefight tossed a fragmentation grenade into a window of the room crowded with Marines.

According to the Marine Corps and Navy Department, which both recommended him for the Medal of Honor, Peralta scooped the grenade toward him to absorb the blast.

Seven Marines who were there agreed Peralta acted consciously to pull the grenade to his body, but they differed in some peripheral details. For example, several said Peralta grabbed the grenade with his right hand; some said it was his left.

The standard for awarding the Medal of Honor has been two eyewitnesses. The Pentagon downgraded the award one level to a Navy Cross under then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who convened a panel to review the accounts. It included two forensic pathologists, a neurosurgeon, a Medal of Honor recipient and a retired Army general.

They concluded the bullet probably killed Peralta instantly and made it unlikely he consciously smothered the grenade. They also said the grenade detonated near his left knee, not under his torso, and that he would have survived the blast if he had not already been shot.

All five panel members said they were “convinced that the evidence does not support the Medal of Honor.”